Church of the Sun Eater

-and the Great Serpent bid unto us to spread ourselves amongst the stars as far as possible, and cultivate our lives. To live happily, and deeply, so as this world passes into the mouth of the Great Serpent at the end of it's lifetime our best qualities may be passed on to him and mirrored in the next world as the serpent crafts it.
To live poorly is to doom ourselves to a hadean eternity when we meet our end.

-Books of the Serpent, Scroll 7 Verse 1

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Dreamspace warps and bends reality to it's whims, like the immutable power of an ocean against a stone applied in a singular instant. It also bends human thought when taken into account. The ideas of what are and what could be are no longer a solid as they were before. The same sentiment also applies to the beliefs of mankind. Thus has the face of religion changed in the time since we stepped out of our cradle amd trends in belief once deemed archaic have found themselves concidered once again amongst the grandchildren of our forebringers beliefs.
In the case of the Sun Eater, its dramatic name belies the religion's rather homely series of beliefs.
Their scripture, known as the Books of the Serpent, paints their deity as a cyclical being that both breaks down the universe and all it contains as it dies and recrafts another world using the materials of the first. Through this process, nothing truly ends nor does it truly begin. It both is and was.
The church of the Sun Eater is not a nihilistic deity, either, but one of hope and progress. The world that comes next is constructed from the materials of this one, and we are in control of this one. The Great Serpent simply awaits at the confluence of time and space waiting for his materials to arrive, so we may use our control of our world while our life is still with us to create the foundation and frame for a world that will make all happy as the next.
To squander this chance is considered the greatest sin within the faith, and actively damaging to everyones eternity. Pressure like that is a fairly strong director.

Ethics

The ethics of the Sun Eaters can be a little fuzzy, as the tenets of the faith are, seemingly, intentionally left vague to allow for the individual to fill in what they believe to be "making the world a better place". On most planets, this boils down to what you'd imagine. Acts of kindness, donations, volunteer work.
there have been a few notable cases, however, where the native social environment of a planet has lead to more negative and hardline interpretations. On a few martial worlds the "making the universe better" is seen in a more authoritarian light. Something that people must be told to do, the expectation enforced with little to no room for differences in interpretation of scripture. The reverse is also true, where the attempt to provide for everyone is taken to the extreme, thus resulting in similar authoritarian approaches to what is, on the whole, an idyllic modus operandi.
These sects are considered extremists and are rarely recognized by the church itself. There are a few that toe the line of what is considered proper and are allowed to sit at the table due to the church's overall creed of what people think is better will differ somewhat. These sects sit in some degree of danger of excommunication, however, due to the content of their beliefs.

Worship

It's considered proper to congregate every 10 planetary cycles, whatever that means to the individual community, where scripture is read and donations given from the congregation to the church. It's also fairly common for these congregations of worshipers to become the vehicle for public service of many forms. They may meet 4 times in a month and then one of those meetings may involve a food drive or even something as simple as public outreach for services in the area.

Type

Religious, Organised Religion